The Mountains of Relion

Level Background

The plans for the Death Star are being kept at one of the Empires coordinating centers in a mountain range on Relion. You must steal the plans and get back to your ship with them.

Initial Comments

Well... not a very long plot is it? And worse yet, it's another "Death Star Plans" mission. Nooo. Oh well... you just got to make the best of it sometimes and keep searching though out the galaxy for another little snippet of the Death Star plans. Luckily for me, this part of the plans are buried inside a nicely designed mountain. I would have liked to seen a mission briefing (and was kind of disappointed when I saw no LFD file in the zip), but like all those "Death Star Plans" missions, I wasn't too upset.

Level Design

For a "Death Star Plans" mission, I felt the architecture was outstanding. It was great to see such uneven footing in the mountain; different layers to climb on the mountain; and, most of all, non-squarish rooms on the mountain. Now notice a pattern... all of them are "on the mountain".

Now you might ask, "What about the Impy base?" This is another story all together. Most of the rooms are boring square hallways, although a few were interesting. One had nine square skylights to provide for a neat effect. I wouldn't go and judge this level on what the Imp base looks like only though; most of the level takes place "on the mountain". Texturing, if applied to the right room, can bring life into a boring room. If it isn't applied to the right room, well... let's not even go there.

I did find a couple trouble spots along my journey through Mount Relion texturing wise, but nothing absolutely critical to the "importance" (remember that I can get these plans in most levels) of the mission. On a whole, I would say not bad for not using any custom textures. I also found a couple stitching problems, but again nothing critical.

There were virtually no traps or puzzles in the level. The only puzzle might have been to navigate your way around the base to find those plans (and that still isn't a hard task). The couple of traps were nothing too hard to get out of, although I almost killed over if there weren't any conveniently located revives around.

Level Dynamics

For being a "Death Star Plans" mission, I would have expected a lot more enemies, mainly because most authors of these types just fill their level to the brim with enemies. But to my enjoyment, this level had just the right amount of enemies. I wasn't overwhelmed, yet the Imps had managed to reduce my shields most of the time. There was one room full of remotes (which I don't like) and a couple of DT's lying around, but mostly just stormies which are no big deal for my trusty Bryar Pistol.

Ammo was more than enough; almost overwhelming at times. I had nearly enough the whole time, but that is understandable when it only takes a few shots to take a stormie down. The level didn't have too many additional weapons to pick up; a few TDs and a concussion rifle (which worked wonders on the DT).

INF is, how would you put it, lacking pizzazz. Most of the INF sequences consisted of elevators. There were also a couple of other effects (such as the river flowing or the mini- hanger), but nothing spectacular. Like I've said in past reviews, "Not as good as some levels, but not as bad as others."

Level Experience

Reading the plot first would be a deterrent for the rest of the level. This, as many of you have read if you got this far, is not your average "Death Star Plans" mission; this one actually makes you think that you are living the mission (sort of). I say the "sort of" because when was the last time someone saw perfectly aligned stairs in a mountain? Or how about alcoves that lead to nothing? (well... that technically COULD happen).

But the point I am trying to get at is that the author failed to grab me by the seat of my pants fully. The lighting, however, is fantastic. Outside places were kept lit; inside places were kept relatively dark. A couple parts were much darker than one would expect, but hey... no author is perfect.

Overall Response

Well, for being a "Death Star Plans" mission, this one isn't all half bad. I downright enjoyed some parts, which is not the saying someone would expect to say playing a... well, you know. I would go ahead and download it if you think you can stand another level with a certain plan-stealing scenario.

Score

Design Score: 9
Dynamics Score: 8.5
Experience Score: 7

Total Score: 83%